17-year-old Viennese in the final in the Norwegian cultural capital Bodø – on August 18th on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – This year Kaleen is going to the “Eurovision Song Contest” in Malmö for Austria – and Leonhard Baumgartner is going to “Eurovision Young Musicians 2024” in Bodø! The 17-year-old Viennese-born violinist won the national preliminary round for the renowned EBU classical young talent competition yesterday (April 2nd) and will compete in the final in the Norwegian city in the summer, which will join the Bad Ischl Salzkammergut region and Tartu in 2024 Estonia has the title of European Capital of Culture. A total of eleven countries are taking part this year: In addition to Austria, these are Armenia, Belgium, Germany, France, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia and the Czech Republic. ORF 2 will show the classical show on August 18th at 10:10 p.m.
Expert jury for Baumgartner: Expressive playing, virtuosic technique, charismatic overall appearance
The top-class five-member expert jury of the national preliminary round for “Eurovision Young Musicians 2024” – consisting of Andrea Götsch (solo clarinetist, member of the Vienna Philharmonic), Rico Gulda (pianist and artistic director of the Vienna Konzerthaus), Dalibor Karvay (solo violinist, first concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra). ), Elke Tschaikner (head of the Ö1 music department) and Martin Traxl (ORF-TV head of culture) – explained their unanimous decision in favor of Leonhard Baumgartner as follows: “The preliminary decision for ‘Eurovision Young Musicians’ has shown once again that the Austrian musical nation is rich in highly talented young talent. In the national competition, the 17-year-old violinist Leonhard Baumgartner was able to prevail against nine other solo instrumentalists and convince the jury with his expressive playing, his virtuosic technique and his charismatic overall performance.
More about the person
Leonhard Baumgartner was born in Vienna in 2007. His violin studies took him to Regina Brandstätter at the Graz University of Art in 2019, and since 2022 he has been intensifying his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Dora Schwarzberg. He also received in-depth lessons from Ingolf Turban as a young student at the Munich University of Music and Theater. Master classes led Leonhard Baumgartner to Ana Chumachenco, David Frühwirth, Yair Kless, Paul Roczek, Kirill Troussov and Pavel Vernikov. The 17-year-old is also attending the 11th grade at the Vienna Music High School.
Leonhard Baumgartner has already performed as a soloist with well-known orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, the Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra and the Tyrolean Chamber Orchestra. In 2022 he was on tour with the Ensemble Esperanza. In the 2023/24 season he returned to the Vienna Konzerthaus to perform at the Jeunesse concerts.
The virtuoso violinist has won national and international prizes and awards since 2014, including most recently the second prize at Il Piccolo Violino Magico 2021, the first prize at the renowned Zhuhai International Mozart Competition 2022 and the Discovery Award at the International Classical Music Awards 2023. He is London Young Musician of the Year 2023 in violin and a scholarship holder of the Liechtenstein International Music Academy.
Classic Eurovision every two years
Since its founding in 1982, “Eurovision Young Musicians” has become one of the most important international music competitions for emerging classical talent. Organized every two years (except 2020 due to the pandemic) by the European Broadcasting Union together with a European television company, young people from all over Europe demonstrate their musical talent in front of an international jury of experts. Young musicians between the ages of 12 and 21 are allowed to take part. Austrian artists such as Julian Rachlin, Lidia Baich, Julia Fischer and Emmanuel Tjeknavorian have so far won or taken part in “Eurovision Young Musicians” and thus launched their world careers. Most recently, the internationally renowned violinist Ziyu He won for Austria in 2014. In 2016, double bass player Dominik Wagner took third place. Austria did not take part in 2018.